...to meet some of our visiting colleagues from the region (thanks to funding from the Swedish International Development Assistance Baltic Unit in Visby on the island of Gotland) and a few representatives from other organizations working with us to discuss international co-operation and coming projects:Krakow -- The Turbulent Battle of Flowers -- at the tomb of the homosexual 15th Century King

Helsinki -- The 10th Tribade Day & Night Festival: September 2009 -- with a special focus on Tallinn, St. Petersburg.

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Including Salutes to Uganda, Iran, LGBT Exiles Around the World:2008 World Cultural Conferences:Finland, USA

Helsinki/Minneapolis-St. Paul/Stockholm—Art, photos, exhibitions, films, musical performances, seminars and discussions characterized the 1st stage of the 2008 ILGCN world rainbow cultural conference in the Finnish capital – November 14-16, part of the annual Tribade Day & Night Festival.

“We hope that the ILGCN input will also be part of our 10th jubilee festival next year,” says Anne Jaaskelainen, festival director and singer/song-writer, who also received the 2008 “Sowelu” award (for outstanding contributions from women in the Nordic sphere) from the Nordic rainbow cultural workers’ organization, Tupilak -- especially honoring her solidarity performances in Eastern Europe.

“We are really pleased to have our new Russian organization participating in the ILGCN conference, says Polina Savchenko from “Coming Out” –St. Petersburg, and we hope that a future stage of the ILGCN conference can come to our city.”

The conference also approved a project linking the near-by cities of Stockholm-Helsinki-St- Petersburg for future rainbow cultural events, providing mutual co-operation and solidarity.

Also at the conference, the special ILGCN Nordic award “Arco Nordica” was presented to thenational Finnish LGBT organization, SETA for its support for Tribade festivals and ILGCN activities.

Willi Reichhold, Austria-Sweden

1st ILGCN World Cultural Conference in North America

The 2nd stage of this year’s ILGCN world conference took place at University of Minnesota venues in Minneapolis/St. Paul – September 19-21, the first ILGCN event ever in the United States. “We are also pleased to put a brighter spotlight on LGBT history and show the first work of our brand new travelling exhibition on this theme,” says Jean Tretter, secretary general of the ILGCN History Secretariat in Minneapolis/St.Paul.

“We are also proud of the conference’s well-attended, special performance of the LGBT Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra—which also gives great emphasis to playing the works of lesbian and gay classical composers,” Tretter adds.

“Our valuable discussions with the leading organizers of Minneapolis Pride and other activists here convince me that there is a real desire to increase American involvement in our battles on the rainbow barricaded in Eastern Europe and the possibilities that more American Prides will invite some of the courageous representatives from Belarus and other nations where the rainbow is still in chains or under siege,” says Bill Schiller, secretary general of the ILGCN Information Secretariat - Stockholm.

Salute to gay researcher and educator, Magnus Hirschfeldt

“We are proud to announce that this year’s ILGCN “Orfeo Iris” award for essential information work about Nazi and neo Nazi persecution of homosexuals goes jointly to the Minnesota Libraries and the Magnus Hirschfeldt Society in Berlin for their outstanding exhibitions marking the 75th birthday of the pioneering Hirschfeldt’s Sexual Institute in Berlin which was destroyed by the Nazis,” adds Tretter.

“Speaking of history, we are pleased to send a salute to the coming October 31 ILGCN event in Krakow lifting a 15th century Swedish-Polish-Hungarian-Russian ruler into the rainbow spotlight – a ceremony organized by Lukasz Palucki, the secretaray general of the ILGCN Eastern European Secretariat -Warsaw, (luke.santi@eranet.pl) -- also to be attended by our ILGCN Hungarian cultural ambassadors,” says Schiller

“We are also proud to announce that the 2008 “Sappho in Paradise” award goes to Ugandan editor in exile, Kizza Musinguzi and his website gayrightsuganda.org -- crucial to an African LGBT community facing violent homophobia,” Schiller adds. “We hope the award diploma will be handed out in London where the Ugandan has found asylum.”

The award honors outstanding contributions to LGBT information, books, libraries and publications – and is co-ordinated both by the ILGCN Information Secretariat and the Paradise Press in London. This is the second time the award goes to Africa – earlier going to the Library Project of Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe. At both world conference stages, examples from the Tupilak/ILGCN Travelling Art & Photo Exhibition were displayed -- including works from Norway to Latvia, Russia to Denmark, Sweden to Spain, Finland to Germany, and photos of the ILGCN delegation to Bucharest Pride this year.

LBGT’s in Exile & Violence in Iran Focal Points in CanadaThe 3rd stage of this year’s ILGCN world conference will take place in Toronto, Canada November 14-16 – giving special attention to LGBT’s in exile and the brutal situation for homosexuals in Iran. This is the first time an ILGCN event is taking place in Canada.

“We are offering a great program of art work, seminars, films and musical performances,” says Michael Gfroerer, secretary general of the ILGCN North American Secretariat – Toronto (he is also an ILGCN “Orfeo Musica” prize winner). “And of course we welcome other ILGCN cultural ambassadors, co-ordinators as well as other rainbow cultural workers to the gathering.” michaelgfroerer@gmail.com

The Canadian conference also hopes to follow tradition by confirming new ILGCN ambassadors and co-ordinators as well as next year’s world conference sites. Proposals so far have come from Bucharest, Budapest, St. Petersburg and Istanbul. ILGCN world conferences are traditionally shared by different cities to make it easier for those unable to afford travelling long distances, since the ILGCN has no travel funds for participants.

Any additional ILGCN people are very welcome in person - contacts are listed in the ILGCN conference press release (see websitewww.ilgcn.tupilak.org )

Suggestions for 2009 ILGCN conference stages are welcome at all the above stages, The same for new ambassadors, co-ordinators, etc. and ILGCN awards.

Proposal: That the ILGCN *Arco Nordica* 2008 go to the national Finnish LGBT organization, SETA, for its emphasis on rainbow culture, assistance to the annual Tribade Day & Night Festival and assistance to the ILGCN world conference stage.

Bill Schiller, secretary general of the ILGCN InformationSecretariat - Stockholm

The International Lesbian & Gay Cultural Network was created at theILGA world conference in Paris in 1992 to promote international rainbowculture and exchange across borders. The ILGCN is not a booking agency,has no membership fee and no funds of its own * but tries tofacilitate contact between organizations and individuals * convincedthat both cultural workers and political activists belong together onthe rainbow barricades * using homo culture as a powerful weaponagainst homophobia and silence. Special support is given to those facingdictatorial regimes, oppressive religious leaders, intolerant media andgangs of neo-Nazis and other homophobes attacking rainbow events.

The Toronto Cultural Conference will attempt to deal with multi-pluscultures of Toronto's lesbian and gay communities. Particular attentionwill be focused on immigration issues.

Conference Speakers (proposed and confirmed)

Iranians in Exile (confirmed)Arsham Parsi, Executive Director, Iranian Queer Organization IRQO andILGCN ambassador/coordinator for Iran "This is Arsham Parsi, boardmember of IRanian Queer Organization. I should thank you Bibi forsupporting us for San Francisco event. The IRanian Queer Organization(IRQO) takes full responsibility for the accuracy and credibility ofthis information. Today, IRQO is the only active NGO that works onbehalf of the Iranian queer (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender)population around the world." "It documents human rights violations,provides letters of support for Iranian queer asylum seekers andrefugees, and supports anti-homophobia efforts. Its documentation iswidely respected for its accuracy and credibility. IRQO is registered inOntario, Canada and is an official member of the followingorganizations: The Brussels-based International Lesbian and GayAssociation (ILGA), the Stockholm-based International Lesbian and GayCultural Network (ILGCN), the Toronto-based Rainbow Railroad group, andthe Berlin-based Advisory Committee of the Hirschfeld-Eddy Foundationfor LGBT Human Rights. IRQO is an international, non-profit, queer humanrights organization based in Toronto, Canada with key workers in Europeand Iran. They help Iranian gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgenderedrefugees all over the world. They help when Iranian lesbians or gay menare threatened with deportation back to Iran. They also help

EXPRESS targets and provides support for youth between16 and 29 who areimmigrants, newcomers to Canada, refugees, refugee claimants andnon-status queer and trans youth. Most of the participants are youngpeople coming from countries and/or cultures where it's not safe, legalor easy to be queer or trans.

EXPRESS includes a weekly meeting on Tuesdays at 5:30 p.m. The projecthad a number of newcomer/immigrant queer youth involved from more than20 different nationalities and/or ethnicities since May of 2002.

Some of the youth participating in EXPRESS can not - due to workcommitment or school schedule - attend all the weekly meetings, and someother newcomer/immigrant queer youth have not been able to participatein any of the meetings because of family or cultural pressures overtheir sexuality. An internet based group and mailing list has beencreated to maintain some level of connection between the youth andprovide some of the support they need outside the regular meeting hours.Please contact Suhail by email soynewcomer(at)sherbourne(dot)on(dot)caor at 416 - 324 5080 to be added to the mailing list

Some of the youth participating in EXPRESS are refugee claimants on thebasis of their sexual orientation. The project provides significantdirect support to these youth in this process as well as the personaland emotional support they receive at the drop-in meetings. Since thelaunch of the project a significant number of youth participants havegained their legal status in Canada with support from EXPRESS.

Facilitator's Bio:Suhail Abualsameed is a community worker and a public speaker who*sconcerned with issues of multiculturalism, diversity, identity and thesocial determinants of health among many others.

Suhail has been running SOY's newcomer/immigrant queer youth programsince 2002. He has also coordinated community based research of TeenNet(a research project based at the department of Public Health Sciences atthe University of Toronto) in the Middle east since 2004. He recentlyinitiated and started coordinating a Community Based Research projectaddressing HIV/AIDS issues among the Muslim communities in the GTA.

Peter Bernier (confirmed)I have been helping gay couples with immigration to Canada since 1994when we got my partner his permanent residence. He has now become aCanadian citizen and we recently celebrated our 15th anniversary. I amone of Canada's most experienced experts on Canadian immigration forgays. I am a member of the Canadian Society of Immigration Consultants(CSIC) as required to represent you, a member of the CanadianAssociation of Immigration Professionals (CAPIC), Co-Chair of CAPIC'sOntario Education Committee, and a High Honours Graduate of theImmigration Practitioner's Certificate Program. I have volunteered withLEGIT in Toronto since 1994 when I founded LEGIT-Toronto

Monday, August 4, 2008

11th Year in 2008: First ILGCN conference stages in North America

World Rainbow Culture:Helsinki, Minneapolis, Toronto

Stockholm – Rainbow Culture from China to Belarus, North America to Iran to the Nordic region, LGBT refugees and global LGBT history – will be some of the topics of seminars, music, photo, art, exhibitions and performances at the three stages of this year’s world cultural conferences of the ILGCN (International Lesbian & Gay Cultural Network).

“We are proud to include the ILGCN conference stage in Helsinki in the annual Tribade Day & Night Festival,” says Anne Jaaskelainen anne.jaasklelainen@nokia.com , festival co-ordinator. This event has also been extended to September 13 and 14th.

“We are pleased to have the first ILGCN conference in North America – September 19-21, 2008,” explains Nick Tretter, secretary general of the ILGCN History Secretariat trett007@umn.edu . “We’ll have seminars on Chinese gay poetry, LGBT life in the United States and battles on the Eastern European barricades -- as well as exhibitions looking at LGBT history around the globe.”

The event will be held at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis/St. Paul and will include a performance of the symphony orchestra – a first in ILGCN conferences.

“At the Toronto stage in November, we want to give a special focus on LGBT refugees around the world and the situation of the rainbow struggle in Iran and on LGBT Iranians forced to flee from that country,” says Michael Gfroerer, secretary general of the ILGCN North America Secretariat michaelgfroerer@yahoo.ca . This will be carried out together with the LGBT group at the University of Toronto.

Free Entrance, No Travel Grants

As usual, all three conference stages are free of charge, although some cultural events requiring the rental of locales may make entrance fees necessary. ILGCN world conferences are often divided between different cities to make accessibility more possible even for those without much travel funds, since the network survives only through donations and has no possibility of providing travel scholarships.

“At these stages, we’ll also announce this year’s ILGCN awards honoring special contributions to the LGBT world of culture – and also approve next year’s and future conference sites – which we hope will be in Budapest, Bucharest and Istanbul,” says Bill Schiller, secretary general of the ILGCN Information Secretariat in Stockholm info@tupilak.org . “We welcome any future candidates as well in this global effort to promote the international use of LGBT culture to combate homophobia, silence, provincialism and pink dollar commercialism that puts profit higher than solidarity.”

Interested ILGCN cultural ambassadors and national co-ordinators – and other rainbow cultural workers -- are especially welcome to participate in the conference stages. The ILGCN is supported by Tupilak (Nordic rainbow cultural workers), the Nordic Rainbow Council and the Nordic Rainbow Humanists.

Monday, June 30, 2008

Tupilak, Nordic Rainbow Council and the ILLGCN Information Secretariat are joining forces to present rainbow culture and Nordic co-operation with colleagues in the Eastern Baltic region.

At the "Baltic Square" international solidarity venue in the harborof the island capital

of the of Gotland during "Almedal Week" --the biggest political and human rights event of the Swedish summer.

LGBT participation from Iceland to the East and Latvia to the west has been made possible by a grant from SIDA, the Swedish International Development Authority's Baltic Unit in Visby. More information: bill@tupilak.se

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Successful participation of Nordic ILGCN representatives in Bucharest Pride. More information coming in the next Erato (under preparation).

Also, more information on the long-postponed Toronto stage of an ILGCN world cultural conference coming soon. To be arranged together with the LGBT group at the University of Toronto.Photo by Colin de la Motte-Sherman, ILGCN-BerlinILGCN AWARDS

2008 Grizzly Bear awards have been awarded to couragous activists in Bucharest and Chisenau -- the later where homophobes violently attacked colleagues in a bus and at the activists' center in the Moldav capital.

Proposals for other 2008 ILGCN awards are very welcome.

HELSINKI

The stage of this year's ILGCN World Cultural Conference will be extended over 2 days instead of 1 -- September 13-14, 2008 -- as part of the annual Tribade Day & Night Festival in the Finnish capital (September 10-16, 2008).

The Information Secretariat is planing to provide multi-media seminars such as:

Thursday, March 27, 2008

May 17 - IDAHO(International Day Against Homophobia) DAY. You are cordially invited to join us when we include an ILGCN seminar at a Stockholm event called *Rainbow Culture & HIV/ AIDS. If you can*t attend in person, any relevant material is very welcome.(As usual, we have no travel grants but will find private accommodation to avoid hotel costs!)

Bucharest -- May 19-25. We plan to include a seminar on the ILGCN and display works from our Tupilak (Nordic lesbian & Gay Cultural workers) and ILGCN art and photography. Any one able to join us and describe about work in your area is very welcome!

NEW ERATO under preparation. Any contributions..? Art work..? Please send it as soon as possible. The January 2008 ERATO is one the web!

2008 ILGCN AWARD nominations welcome!

ILGCN WORLD CULTURAL CONFERENCE STAGES 2008 - Plans are rolling for the stages in Helsinki(part of the Tribade Night & Day Festival) on September 14 and in Minneapolis/St. Paul(arranged by the ILGCN History Secretariat)September 19-21. Contributions from ILGCN cultural ambassadors and co-ordinators are very welcome!).

NEW ADDITIONS:

Our new ILGCN co-ordinator for Uganda is Kiyimba Brown of IDAHO Uganda. We hope to have an ILGCN event in Kampala in the future.

Stockholm -- Tupilak, the Nordic organization of LGBT cultural workers in the Nordic area, is launching this year with special emphasis on co-operation projects in Sweden and in our Nordic and Baltic neighbors -- promoting the use of rainbow culture as a powerful weapon against homophobia, provincially and silence.

"We're adopting the excellent Polish idea of concrete East-West co-operation by launching the "Blue Baltic" happening " -- in Stockholm on July 19 at Södra Teatern (a week before EuroPride here) together with two cities in countries on the eastern shores of the Baltic -- pledging to increase mutual participation in each other's events. It had been hoped in vain that Europride organizers would adopt this concept to share the spotlight with Eastern European colleagues -- and maybe this may one day happen," says Tupilak chairman Bill Schiller, also general secretary of the ILGCN (International Lesbian & Gay Cultural Network) Information Secretariat - Stockholm. "We have nothing against launching the idea on a smaller, less prestigious scale."

AIDS in Rainbow Culture: Baltic Spotlights and Shadows

Tupilak, the ILGCN, the Nordic Rainbow Council and the Nordic Rainbow Humanists are also planning a special cultural festival in connection with this year's May 17 IDAHO (The International Day Against Homophobia) in Stockholm -- with seminars, drama, poetry, photography, music, song and dance. The aim is to help illustrate how HIV and AIDS have been reflected -- or ignored -- in cultural life of the Nordic and Baltic region, and how rainbow culture can be better used to promote safer sex and responsibility -- especially where HIV has reached epidemic proportions in some of Sweden's eastern neighbors across the Baltic Sea.

Swedish and Polish participants at Equality Days In Poznan

Tupilak is also planning to send delegates, the travelling Tupilak/ILGCN art exhibit and films to Prides and other events in the region -- especially in the East, as well as with other "partners" in Eastern Europe such as Romania, with a Nordic-Romanian rainbow festival in Stockholm and in Bucharest during the year. The special relationship with colleagues in Belarus -- the homophobic and last East European dictatorship.

"We are attending the Nordic-Baltic conference in Warsaw February 7-10 hoping to check out what progress has been made int eh many recommendations made at the meeting in Gothenburg last September for increasing co-operation," Schiller adds. "We'll also try to attend the ILGCN world cultural conference stages in Helsinki on September 14 (part of the Tribade Days & Nights Festival) and Minneapolis/St. Paul September 19-21.

Tupilak's November 9 "Kristal Nacht" event -- held in Stockholm earlier and in other Baltic cities -- focusing on Nazi and neo Nazi persecution of homosexuals is searching for a new host city, while Tupilak's annual Moonbow art exhibit and the winter solstice festival are again booked for the Swedish capital.

"Of course, we'll be handing out our annual Tupilak, ILGCN, and other awards during the year to honor outstanding achievements in the world of rainbow culture and international human rights, "Schiller concludes. "We hope we also see a boost in new members among cultural workers and those who support rainbow culture -- since the 100 kronor membership fee and the moral support really helps a small organization like ours cross international and psychological barriers."